Revenue increase of $8.6 billion in FY11 – largest single-year increase in company history

Dell’s expanding strength as an enterprise solutions provider and continued strong execution during the fiscal fourth quarter drove record results and one of the company’s most successful financial quarters ever.

Results

Revenue in the quarter was $15.7 billion and totaled $61.5 billion for the fiscal year, an $8.6 billion or 16 percent increase from the previous fiscal year, including the impact of acquisitions.

The company had its highest operating income in five years. GAAPoperating income was $1.1 billion, or 7.3 percent of revenue. Non-GAAP operating income was $1.3 billion, or 8.2 percent of revenue.

GAAP earnings per share was a record 48 cents; non-GAAP EPS was 53 cents.

GAAPgross margin in the quarter was 21 percent and 18.5 percent for the year. Non-GAAP gross margin was 21.5 percent in the quarter and 19.1 percent for the year, the result of record profitability in the enterprise solutions and services business, lower component costs and strong commercial execution.

Cash flow from operations was $1.5 billion, and Dell ended the quarter with $15 billion in cash and investments.

Fiscal-Year 2011 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Highlights

Fourth Quarter Fiscal Year

(in millions)

FY11

FY10

Change

FY11

FY10

Change

Revenue

$15,692

$14,900

5%

$61,494

$52,902

16%

Operating Income (GAAP)

$1,145

$510

124%

$3,433

$2,172

58%

Net Income (GAAP)

$927

$334

177%

$2,635

$1,433

84%

EPS (GAAP)

$0.48

$0.17

182%

$1.35

$0.73

85%

Operating Income (non-GAAP)

$1,286

$798

61%

$4,149

$2,974

40%

Net Income (non-GAAP)

$1,018

$544

87%

$3,106

$2,054

51%

EPS (non-GAAP)

$0.53

$0.28

89%

$1.59

$1.05

51%

Information about Dell’s use of non-GAAP financial information is provided under “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” below. Non-GAAP financial information excludes costs related primarily to the amortization of purchased intangibles, severance and facility-action costs, a merger termination fee, certain settlement costs and acquisition-related charges. All comparisons in this press release are year over year unless otherwise noted.

Strategic Highlights:

Revenue for enterprise solutions and services grew 7 percent to $4.6 billion in the quarter and now represents 29 percent of the company’s consolidated revenue. Server revenue increased 16 percent. EqualLogic sales grew 49 percent and, combined with Dell PowerVault sales, accounted for almost two-thirds of the company’s storage revenue and more than 80 percent of the company’s storage gross margin dollars. Revenue for the combined Large Enterprise, Public and SMB businesses was up 9 percent to $12.4 billion in the quarter, with revenue for commercial laptop and desktop computers growing 10 percent.

Strong demand and profitability across all commercial business segments drove consolidated GAAP operating income of $1.1 billion, or 7.3 percent of revenue. Non-GAAP operating income was $1.3 billion, a 61 percent increase and 8.2 percent of revenue.

Client profitability improved notably in the second half of the year driven by solid supply-chain performance, lower input costs and improved product quality. The company’s product availability improved 37 percent and order-to-delivery times improved 33 percent over the previous year. For the full year, client revenue grew 14 percent to $33.7 billion driven by a continuing corporate refresh cycle.

Dell Services revenue grew one percent to $1.9 billion as the company delivered on its first-year revenue and cost-synergy targets associated with the successful integration of Perot Systems. The services organization now has annual revenue of $7.7 billion.

Dell extended its core capabilities in the quarter and exited the year with a significantly enhanced enterprise solutions and services portfolio. The company is making sustained organic and inorganic investments to build its intellectual property and provide customers optimal, open and affordable solutions. Among these investments are the recently completed acquisitions of SecureWorks Inc., a provider of information-security services; Boomi, which offers a Software-as-a-Service platform to ease data exchange between cloud-based and on-premise applications; and Insite One, a leader in cloud-based medical archiving solutions.

Business Units and Regions:

Large Enterprise revenue was $4.7 billion, up 12 percent from a year ago. Operating income was $502 million, or 10.7 percent of revenue and a 26 percent sequential increase. Enterprise solutions and services revenue was $1.9 billion, a 5 percent increase, with server revenue up 14 percent. Revenue from desktop and laptop computers grew 20 percent as the strong client refresh among large corporate accounts continued.

Public revenue was $4 billion, a 4 percent increase driven by strong server and storage sales. Operating income for the quarter was $366 million, or 9.2 percent of revenue. For the full year, Public delivered strong performance with operating income of $1.5 billion, or 8.8 percent of revenue. Server revenue growth of 13 percent and storage growth of 12 percent balanced demand decline for desktop and laptop computers.

Small and Medium Business revenue was $3.7 billion, up 12 percent to its highest level in two years. SMB had another quarter of record profitability, with operating income hitting $450 million in the quarter, or 12 percent of revenue. Server revenue was up 22 percent and storage revenue was up 20 percent. Revenue for desktop computers and mobile devices increased 10 percent. During the quarter, Dell added the Vostro V130 ultraportable laptop for mobile entrepreneurs.

Consumer revenue was $3.3 billion, up 11 percent sequentially but, as expected, down year over year by 8 percent relative to a strong Windows 7 launch last year. Operating income was $69 million, or 2.1 percent of revenue. Dell introduced the Inspiron duo, which has a unique flip-hinge design to combine the simplicity of a tablet and the functionality of a laptop with full keyboard.

Asia-Pacific and Japan revenue grew 17 percent, EMEA increased 3 percent and the Americas were up 3 percent. Revenue in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) grew 21 percent and represents 13 percent of total company revenue. For the full year, revenue in those countries was up 38 percent.

Quotes:

Michael Dell, chairman and chief executive officer: “I’m very pleased with our fiscal year results and the strong performance we’re seeing in our commercial businesses. We remain focused on developing and acquiring new technologies and capabilities, and our IT solutions portfolio has never been stronger. Customers are now seeing Dell in a fresh light, and we’re heading into the new year with strength and optimism.”

Brian Gladden, chief financial officer: “Our outstanding fourth quarter and full-year results align well with our long-term value creation framework, and we’re pleased with the sustainable operational improvements we’ve made across the company, including in our consumer business. With our strong cash flow, solid balance sheet and improving overall profitability, we believe we are well positioned to deliver strong performance for our shareholders.”

Company Outlook: For its fiscal-year 2012, Dell expects revenue growth of 5 to 9 percent, non-GAAP operating income growth of 6 to 12 percent, and continued strong execution on cash flow with cash flow from operations exceeding net income. In its first quarter of fiscal-year 2012, Dell expects normal seasonal declines in its consumer and public businesses and, as such, a slight sequential decline in revenue.

About DellDell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers worldwide innovative technology, business solutions and services they trust and value. For more information, visit www.dell.com. As previously announced, the fourth-quarter a nalyst call with Michael Dell, chairman and CEO; Brian Gladden, CFO; and, Steve Schuckenbrock, senior vice president, Dell Services, will be webcast live today at 4:00 CST and archived at www.dell.com/investor. To monitor highlighted facts from the analyst call, follow on the Dell Investor Relations Twitter account at: http://twitter.com/dellshares or hashtag #DellEarnings. To communicate directly with Dell, go to www.dell.com/dellshares.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures:This press release includes information about non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP operating income, non-GAAP net income, and non-GAAP earnings per share (collectively with non-GAAP operating expenses, the “non-GAAP financial measures”), which are not measurements of financial performance prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. In the following tables, Dell has provided a reconciliation of each historical non-GAAP financial measure to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure under the heading “Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures” and has presented a detailed discussion of its reasons for including the non-GAAP financial measures and the limitations associated with those measures under the heading “Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures.” Dell encourages investors to review the reconciliation and the non-GAAP discussion in conjunction with Dell’s presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures.

Special Note on Forward Looking Statements:Statements in this press release that relate to future results and events (including statements about Dell’s future financial and operating performance, announced and planned acquisitions, anticipated customer demand, including seasonal trends and commercial momentum, enterprise solutions strategies, component costs, cost controls, supply chain improvements, and new products, as well as the financial guidance with respect to revenue and non-GAAP operating income) are forward-looking statements and are based on Dell's current expectations. In some cases, you can identify these statements by such forward-looking words as “anticipate,” “believe,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “confidence,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “should,” “will” and “would,” or similar expressions. Actual results and events in future periods may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements because of a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors, including: weak global economic conditions and instability in financial markets; weak economic conditions and additional regulation affecting Dell’s financial services activities; intense competition; Dell’s cost-cutting measures; Dell’s ability to effectively manage periodic product and services transitions; Dell’s ability to effectively manage the growth of its distribution capabilities and add to its product and services offerings; Dell’s ability to achieve favorable pricing from its vendors; Dell’s reliance on third-party suppliers for product components, including reliance on several single-sourced or limited-sourced suppliers; disruptions in component or product availability; successful implementation of Dell’s acquisition strategy; Dell’s ability to generate substantial non-U.S. net revenue; Dell’s product, customer, and geographic sales mix, and seasonal sales trends; Dell’s ability to access the capital markets; loss of government contracts; customer terminations of or pricing changes in services contracts, or Dell’s failure to perform as it anticipates at the time it enters into services contracts; Dell’s ability to hedge effectively its exposure to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates and interest rates; counterparty default; unfavorable results of legal proceedings; Dell’s ability to obtain licenses to intellectual property developed by others on commercially reasonable and competitive terms; expiration of tax holidays or favorable tax rate structures, or unfavorable outcomes in tax audits and other compliance matters; Dell’s ability to maintain strong internal controls; changing environmental and safety laws; the effect of armed hostilities, terrorism, natural disasters, and public health issues; information technology and manufacturing infrastructure disruptions or breaches of data security; Dell’s ability to attract, retain, and motivate key personnel; the risk of temporary suspension or debarment from contracting with U.S. federal, state and local governments as a result of settlements of an SEC investigation by Dell and Dell’s Chairman and CEO; and other risks and uncertainties discussed in Dell’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for its fiscal year ended Jan. 29, 2010 and its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended July 30, 2010. In particular, Dell’s expectations with regard to revenue and non-GAAP operating income for the full fiscal year ending Feb. 3, 2012 assume, among other matters, that there is no significant decline in economic conditions generally or demand growth specifically, no delays in pursuing the enterprise strategy, no supply chain disruptions, and no significant adverse component pricing or supply movements. Dell assumes no obligation to update its forward-looking statements.

Consolidated statements of income, financial position and cash flows and other financial data follow.Dell, EqualLogic, PowerVault, Vostro and Inspiron are trademarks of Dell Inc. Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others.

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